


A Promise Is A Promise

by SoundandColor



Category: The Breakfast Club (1985)
Genre: 1980s, Background Het, Bullying, High School, M/M, Sexual Content, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2013-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-05 07:55:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1091471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoundandColor/pseuds/SoundandColor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shermer on a Saturday, is a completely different beast from the building on a Monday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Promise Is A Promise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thesleepingsatellite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesleepingsatellite/gifts).



Allison’s under the bleachers, a cigarette hanging from her lip, when Brian’s crossing the green space at the back of the high school that Monday. As he steps closer, he can see she’s picking at a scab on her forearm, a thin, bright line of red snaking down and blooming onto the wrist of her white sweater.

It takes her a moment to look up, but when she does, she says, “Brian,” with that weird spaced look on her face, like she knows things about him he hasn’t told her, like she can see his soul or something. He fidgets.

“Hey, Allison. What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for something,” she murmurs, turning back to the delicate wound on her arm. “I can’t find it.”

He shoves his hands into his pockets and rocks back onto his heels, wanting to leave her to it, but hearing his mother’s voice scream about manners in the back of his mind.  He looks her over then, trying to find something to say, when he remembers some sound advice. If a number problem loses it’s value and starts to become a blur of _stuff_ in front of his eyes, Mr. Wickham, his math teacher, taught him to focus on one aspect of the equation until everything else came back into sharp focus. He looks at Allison again.

“Your hair…”

“Yes?”

“The headband Claire gave you. You’re not wearing it.”

Her eyes narrow slightly, she smiles. “Didn’t match my outfit.”

They stare at one another for a beat longer than he can stand. “I guess I’ll see you then.”

She looks up at him from beneath her lashes and wiggles her fingers. “Bye, Bri-Bri.”

He doesn’t think he quite turns tail and runs, but it’s a close thing.

-

Shermer on a Saturday, is a completely different beast from the building on a Monday. Logically, he knows that it would be. Weekdays see the school’s halls filled wall to wall with teenage bodies. There’s a consistent roar of noise—lockers slamming, laughing, the occasional argument, the even rarer fight— everyone has to raise their voice to be heard, which only makes it even louder. He should be used to this by now, and he mostly is, but it bothers him today almost as much as it did the first time he walked through those double doors.

Brian slips away when he can. Into empty classrooms, the boys’ room, the back stairwell off of the auditorium most of the students forget is there until there’s a pep rally or basketball game. He’s made it through half the day like this before stumbling across Claire and Bender, talking low in a back corner of the library.  Brian pulls up short and stands close to the end cap of a shelf. He pulls his backpack close to his chest and peeks at them once, before stepping back out of sight. He doesn’t know if he should try and say hello or not. Talking to Allison hadn’t been a complete bust, but Claire is something different altogether and Bender… He honestly has no clue how John would react if Brian tried to speak to him.

He’s almost gathered his nerve to do it now because, if they reject him, at least there’s no one around to see, when they raise their voices and their conversation becomes clear. It’s an argument; Brian knows that from just the tone of Claire’s voice and, when he stops worrying about being seen and looks closer, her body language too. Brian isn’t great at taking social cues, but even he can see what’s happening here.

Bender leans closer, whispers, “ _Bitch_ ,” lowly, from between his teeth. “You rotten bitch,” and Brian feels the force of it from across the room. He means it. With every bit of himself he means every syllable of it and Brian’s never heard that word sound so hateful.

“That’s why,” Claire says, straightening her shoulders and staring back at him, her face inscrutable, until Bender looks away.

-

He doesn’t realize he’s staring at her over his chemistry book until Seth, his closest thing to a friend and probable future rival for valedictorian, snaps his fingers and moves his head into his line of vision.  He’s got a dopey grin on his face as he looks from Brian to Claire and back again. “Got something to tell us about Saturday?”

Brian sits up straight and closes his textbook, pushes his fish sticks around on his tray before frowning and leaving them be, “What are you talking about?”

“You and the homecoming queen?”

When Brian still doesn’t answer, Seth rolls his eyes and makes a rude gesture. “I know she was in detention too.”

“Please,” Brian cuts in with a raised hand.

“Then what’s with the eyes all of a sudden? You never seemed into her before.”

“We talked, okay. She’s not how I thought she would be. I saw something earlier—I just want to make sure she’s all right.”

“She’s got a table full of people over there to make sure she’s all right,” another boy at their table mutters, not bothering to look away from his text book.

“But they—“ Brian looks at the rowdy crowd around her, he thinks of the way Bender spoke to her earlier and stands up. “I’m just going to go over there for a second.”

He must have said something crazy because they’re looking at him like he’s insane. “You’re going to go over there?”

“Just for a minute.”

“I don’t think that’s—“

Brian doesn’t stay to listen because he already knows. He walks over slowly and it feels like every step closer he gets, the more people stop what they’re doing to watch but it’s too late to turn back. He hasn’t even made it to the table before a group of seven boys surrounds him. “What are you doing over here, panty waste?”

“My name’s actually Brian and I came to tell Claire—“

“Claire!” Idiot number one declares closing the circle that appeared around him as soon as he stepped up to the table. “Panty Waste here was trying to talk to Claire, Josh!?”

“Why would you ever think that was something you could do?” Idiot number two, _Josh_ , asks calmly. The first guy just wants a laugh at Brian’s expense, but the steady and clear eyed gaze of this second boy is making him nervous.

“Guys,” Claire starts but no one is listening.

“I—“ he looks to her with a plaintive smile and she stares back, looking almost as uncomfortable as he feels. “I wanted—“

Before he can get his thought out, Idiot number two grabs a carton of milk off a passing freshman’s tray, brings his hand down flat and hard on its side and sprays it all over Brian. “Nobody cares what you want,” he declares flatly. The cafeteria is deadly quiet as they watch, then it bursts into a flurry of jeers and cheers.

Brian turns swiftly, avoiding everyone’s eyes and high tails it out of the cafeteria. He’s halfway to the boys room when someone calls his name. He’s got half a mind to keep on moving, but the voice sounds familiar and when he turns around, Andy is standing behind him in a wrestling sweatshirt looking concerned.

“Hey, I saw—“ he stops short and checks the hallway before stepping closer. “That was—”

“I only tried to talk to her and they… they assaulted me!”

Andy watches him for a moment before asking, “What did you expect, man?” and it isn’t mean, it’s just an honest question.

_What did you expect?_

Brian doesn’t know how to answer him.

-

The principal wants to call his parents in, have a conference, make his life even harder. When Brian makes it clear that he will not be cooperating, he’s given a stern talk about how _evil persists when good men look the other way_ before he’s let go.

He could leave now, he probably should. School will be over in 20 minutes and he can get the jump on anyone who might try and catch him after the bell rings, but he has science club today and it’s one of the few bright spots of his week. He won’t give that up. Brian takes his textbook in his arm, throws his backpack in his locker and makes his way to the back stairwell. He figures he could hang out there for next 25 or 30 minutes and study. He doesn’t expect to see Bender sitting on a low step, a cigarette hanging from his lip.

He’s wearing his duster even though it’s warm inside the building, and he’s got a black eye Brian didn’t notice earlier and has no plans to ask about now. Bender takes his time acknowledging Brian’s presence. He takes a few more puffs, snuffs it out under the toe of his boot and looks up with a smirk. “Heard you took a shower in the middle of the cafeteria today. How was it?”

“Refreshing.” Brian’s surprised by his own words and he can tell Bender is too. His eyes widen for a second with something—Humor? Surprise? Respect?—before whatever he felt disappears back into nonchalance.

“Well I’m sure they’d be up for an encore anytime.”

He expects him to get up and leave with that parting shot, but Bender stays seated and, suddenly, Brian is certain that he was waiting for him. That he paced the small landing until he heard footsteps and took his mark. The final bell sounds but neither of them moves.

“Did you think she’d speak up for you?”

“She tried.”

“Well she’s great at that, you know. Trying and not succeeding.”

“I bet you know something about it too,” Brian replies sharply and Bender places his elbows on his knees, leans forward to watch him curiously.

“So you been jerking off to her or something?”

“What? I wouldn’t—“

“Jerk off?”

Brian isn’t sure how they got on this subject, but he knows it’s making him uncomfortable. “It’s not like that.”

“It’s always like that,” Bender says, his eyes dark and unreadable. He stands up and steps into Brian’s space. “I could tell you. What it’s like to touch her. About how she gets so wet, you can hear your fingers move inside.”

Brian feels an ember of heat light low in his belly at the thought of it, of her. At the look on Bender’s face right now. At the image in his mind of two of them together. He can feel heat in his face as he says, “You were only with her for two days.”

“I can get a lot done in 48 hours.”

“You shouldn’t talk like that.”

“Why not. Perverts like you love it.”

“I’m not a pervert.”

“Of course you are, you freak. Look at you.” Bender steps closer and Brian feels his breath catch. He hears it too, loud and shocking in the empty stairwell—auditorium, building—and Bender’s eyes widen with a smile. He takes Brian’s wrist tightly and moves it to the front of Bender’s jeans. “You think I’m an asshole? A bully? An idiot gearhead?”

“No,” Brian says, too distracted to be afraid or tactful. “I think you’re pathetic.” Bender snarls but his dick jumps beneath Brian’s palm, his breath speeds up, they’re chest to chest now and Brian has no idea what exactly he’s supposed to _do_ with that.

Bender does.

He reaches down slowly, strangely gentle, and unzips Brian jeans, gets to his knees in front of him and Brian can hear himself breathing again. Loud bursts of breath he can’t seem to control. “What are you doing?”

“What do you think, virgin?”

Bender pulls him free of his jeans, gives him one stroke that just about buckles his knees. No one, _no one_ , has ever touched Brian like this before. He wants to push into it. He wants to run away screaming. Bender takes him in his mouth and he slams his eyes shut, gasps at how good it feels. He jerks forward a little before making himself stop.

“You can do better.” Brian covers his eyes and rolls forward slightly. “More.” Bender says and he can feel his lips barely grazing his skin. Bender strokes him a second time, _hard_ , orders “come on, you fuckin’ wimp!” and something inside of Brian switches on. He grabs a fistful of Bender’s hair, tilts his hips and slams forward once, twice, again. Bender touches his hip, says, _yeah_ , under his breath, uses just the barest edge of teeth and laughs when Brian pushes him away with a startled hiss. “That all you got, freak?”

It’s not. Not even a little.

Brian can’t look. He can’t watch what’s happening—what he’s _doing_ — and stay sane, so he stares at the ash from Bender’s cigarette, the light on the ceiling reflecting from the diamond in John’s ear, The crack in the wall directly in front of him. Brian pulls Bender’s hair tighter and hears— _feels_ —Bender groan into his skin. He’s almost there. Almost. If only he could just finish already—Claire and Andy and Allison cross his mind then, the five of them together. The way he could talk to them, the way that they listened.  He wants to dance again.

And that does it. That’s what it takes and all of this ends almost as quickly as it began: on a tremble, on a strangled breath, on a desire for something he’s never going to have. He feels sticky and wrung out and empty as he zips up afterward. He wants to go home and shower, do his homework, take a nap, eat the spaghetti his mom cooks every Monday and try very hard not to think of this.

Bender’s watching him as he stands up, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of that disgusting duster. “I gotta say, I would’ve never guessed you had that in you. It shouldn’t have really surprised me though. A beta male such as yourself probably has a lot of pent up anger.”

Brian’s only half listening, his gaze keeps straying to Bender’s mouth, to his lips: swollen and red and wet with spit and his cock and his come and Brian feels sick, he feels twitchy, he feels himself getting hard before he turns away.

“If you’re wondering, this will stay between us. I know how to keep quiet.” He sits back on the step Brian found him on and looks off into the middle distance, his lips curve upward but Brian wouldn’t call what he’s doing a smile, his mind is obviously a million miles away. “I’m everyone’s dirty secret.”

 _And whose fault is that_ Brian thinks, but manages not to say out loud. Unlike the boy across from him, he gets no joy from kicking people when they’re down. Brian’s shaken by what’s just happened, but a part of him wants to reach out, to try and help even though he knows that whatever it is John (Claire, Andy, Allison) needs is beyond his capability to give. He looks at Bender for a moment longer, _really_ looks at him, a thousand different things he could say running through his mind before he settles on, “I’ll see you around,” and goes to science club.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to thank [Carriemac](http://archiveofourown.org/users/carriemac/pseuds/carriemac) for the awesome beta! You really helped.


End file.
